तेषाम् आपततां शीघ्रं गाण्डीवप्रेषितैः शरैः ॥
निचकर्त शिरांस्य् उग्रौ बाहून् अपि सुभूषणान् ॥
तैः शिरोभिर् मही कीर्णा बाहुभिश् च सहाङ्गदैः ॥
बभौ कनकपाषाणा भुजगैर् इव संवृता ॥
बाहवो विशिखैश् छिन्नाः शिरांस्य् उन्मथितानि च ॥
च्यवमानान्य् अदृश्यन्त द्रुमेभ्य इव पक्षिणः ॥
teṣām āpatatāṃ śīghraṃ gāṇḍīvapreṣitaiḥ śaraiḥ ||
nicakarta śirāṃsy ugrau bāhūn api subhūṣaṇān ||
taiḥ śirobhir mahī kīrṇā bāhubhiś ca sahāṅgadaiḥ ||
babhau kanakapāṣāṇā bhujagair iva saṃvṛtā ||
bāhavo viśikhaiś chinnāḥ śirāṃsy unmathitāni ca ||
cyavamānāny adṛśyanta drumebhya iva pakṣiṇaḥ ||
As they rushed swiftly upon him, the terrible Arjuna, with arrows sent by the Gandiva, lopped off heads and arms richly adorned. With those heads the earth was strewn, and with arms bearing bracelets, [and] it shone, [as if] of golden stones, as though covered with serpents. Arms cut off by arrows and heads struck off were seen falling, like birds from trees.
82a55195d2cd · publicado 19 jul 2026, 15:45:02 UTC
Disponible enRUENPasa de verso en verso con
Again the image 'drumebhyaḥ iva pakṣiṇaḥ,' 'like birds from trees,' for falling arms and heads: the dreadful is likened to something light, almost weightless. The poet softens the horror without hiding it. It is telling that the motif recurs: the poem insistently shows the cost of war. The verse teaches us not to grow used to war's horror: however often the picture of severed limbs repeats, it remains a reminder of squandered lives; and the image of birds shaken from trees bids us see in every fallen life not a statistic but the ease with which war sweeps away the living.